Nick Styles (Denzel Washington) was just an ordinary cop on the beat in the big city, until the day his climactic, video-taped showdown with mass-murdering hitman and robber Earl Talbott Blake (John Lithgow) landed him in the spotlight.
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In the coming years, Styles becomes a major player in city politics, earning his law degree and joining the District Attorney's office.
While Styles's star continues to rise, Blake rots in a desert prison, killing and maiming anyone suicidal enough to be his cellmate and obsessing over news-images of Styles's success.
As Nick prepares for a major telethon for his pet project, the restoration of the downtown district in general and the decrepit "twin towers" in particular, and discusses a possible run for mayor with his "rabbi," Councilman Farris, Blake organizes a group of neo-Nazi prisoners in a bloody breakout. Only three escapees survive to reach freedom: Blake, his protege, and the Aryan leader.
The Aryan's plan is simple: meet back at a specified bookshop in two weeks to pick-up fake ID, then skip the country. But Blake has other ideas. He kills the Aryan and burns his body in a car crash. This, coupled with a switch of the Aryan's dental records for his, convinces the world that Blake is dead.
As Nick tries to get both the downtown project and his candidacy off the ground, Blake begins to tear-down his enemy's accomplishments one by one, framing Nick for corruption, pedophilia, drug abuse, adultery, and murder.
Nick struggles to expose Blake as the mastermind behind his troubles, but the only one who believes him is his old partner from the force.
This subtle, psychological action flick ping-pongs from the sewers of the ghetto to the posh suburbs and comes to an explosive conclusion atop the twin towers complex.
The review of this Movie prepared by James Craver
